Monday, 30 July 2012

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding : The sky cleared up just before we started the tour, the conditions where perfect ! So just after having gone to Akurey to watch a few Puffins and others birds we headed offshore. The sea was pretty quite, the Pilot Whales are probably more offshore now and even with this really calm sea we didn't see any sign of cetaceans on this tour. Bad luck or just lack of food in the Bay tonight ? It's hard to tell. We offered a complementary ticket after this evening a bit disapointing. Anyway, the sunset was beautiful and the live music made everyone kept smiling. We offered a complementary ticket after this evening a bit disapointing.

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed to Akurey but unfortunately there were not many Puffins on the Island. After this it did not take more than 5 minutes to spot the first Minke Whale of the tour. We saw it just a few times and as it seemed to be difficult to watch we decided to head further out. We had just turned the boat and spotted a Pod of 2 to 3 Harbour Porpoises. After having a short look at them we sailed further out and we had to search for a long time until we found our Minke Whale of the tour. First we spotted two individuals that were again difficult but then we found a nice one. The fourth Minke of the tour finally came close to our boat surfaced many times so we could hear and smell the blows of it. It was a happy ending of a tour with a long long search.

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: we set out again with the aim to have a look at the Pilot Whales and see how they had fared since we left them in Akranes harbour. We found them about an hour into the tour in a much more suitable location, out in the bay instead of in a harbour. The pod was dispersed into several small ones and all around us we could see Pilot Whales. Incredibly massive animals travelling at great speed. In the end we decided to leave them to their business and try to find one Minke Whale or so as a bonus to the joy that the Pilot Whales had brought us. But no matter how much we looked in the foggy and rainy conditions of the afternoon, there was nothing else to be seen.

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We headed out the bit moody looking Faxaflói bay it did turn out much nicer than it looked, the sea stayed calm and the raining stopped after a short sailing. We wanted to try to go back to the Long-finned Pilot Whales that we had seen this morning very close to Akranes. We were very happy when we found them much further from shore than this morning and the hole pod looked much calmer and more relaxed than last time we had seen them. We spent as much time as we could with them, we had amazing time there, they surfaced all around the boat, sometimes coming very close to us.  This was a unique experience and we were all very touched by these beautiful animals. But of course it was time to leave in the end and at our sail back to Reykjavik we came across a small pod of Harbour Porpoises that surfaced couple of times close to the boat. We stopped at the puffin colony on our way back but sadly there were not many puffins around but we got a god look at many other birds such as black backed gulls, common eiders, artic terns, fullmars and artic skuas.

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: just before we went out we got the news that the Long-finned Pilot Whales from the weekend were still around but had moved across the bay from Njarðvík to Akranes and were practically inside Akranes harbour. As we had found ourselves in the position of needing to help them out when many of them had beached themselves in Njarðvík, and we got the news that at least two had beached themselves in Akranes, we hurried there. Fortunately we got the news while we were on the way that the two animals had managed to free themselves. So we arrived and found this massive pod (200-300) almost forming a triangle in front of Akranes. Several local boats were there to help out so our help was not needed this time but we watched while they slowly managed to manuvre the animals out into Faxaflói Bay and out towards where they belong, out on the open ocean, not close to land. Then we went home and on the way ran into a few Harbour Porpoises but they were on an express journey to somewhere and had no time to say hello as we lost them almost straight away.

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This morning we sailed straight out into the bay and decided to stop at the Puffin colony Akurey on our way back to Reykjavík. It was raining a little bit and the bay was foggy but the sea was very calm. On the way out we got the message that the Pilot Whales came close to the coast at Akranes. We went straight to the area and found 200+ Pilot Whales. When we recognized that they were very close to land we tried to get with our vessel in between of them and the land, to scare them away from the dangerous coast. As we regognized that they were so close to land that there was no chance for us to get behind them we moved back and watched the dramatic situation from a distance. We tried to call smaller boats that could get in between them and the coast and when there were other boats around we decided to leave the Pilot Whales in peace and headed on. Still worried about the whales we kept our passengers informed about the situation in Akranes during the whole time while we were searching for other species. We did not find any other whales but we arrived Reykjavík after an breathtaking morning with an open end.